The Microcosm of Kowloon Walled City
The year is 1975. You wake up and walk towards your balcony hoping to have a breath of fresh air, only to be met with pitch black darkness, the soot-covered walls of your neighbour’s flat, the pungent smell of rotting waste and garbage, along with the constant yellow liquid dripping from the leaking pipes on to your balcony floor. You then realise, you haven't experienced any form of sunlight, fresh air or ventilation in the past few years. The only way to actually tell the time would be to actually use a clock or to look outside to see if any stores are open. Next to your small bed lies a tub of not-so-clean water sourced from a well which needs to last you and your entire family for a whole week or even longer.
This is what it was like to live in a claustrophobic’s worst nightmare — Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong also dubbed as the ‘City of Darkness’ and the ‘World’s Densest Dystopian City’ with a population density of over 1,255,000 inhabitants per square kilometre. Kowloon Walled City was home to over 300 13-14 storey buildings with a population of approximately 33,000-35,000 inhabitants – all on a mere 2.6 hectares.1 To this day, even the most densely populated slums in the world, Dharavi, India has only reached a population density of 340,000 inhabitants per square kilometre, which is less than a third of the population density of Kowloon Walled City.2
Aerial View of Kowloon Walled City.
Photographer: Ian Lambot
To put this into perspective, 2.6 hectares would be approximately only 7% of the University of Melbourne Parkville campus (35.2 hectares) and only 0.5% of the entire Central Business District of Melbourne (620 hectares).3,4 This would also mean that if the land were to be equally divided amongst the inhabitants, each inhabitant would only have approximately 0.75 m2 of land which would be 0.3% the size of an average Victorian suburban home – or the size of a small backyard garden storage shed.5
Urban Planning of Kowloon Walled City
To have approximately 300 buildings on such a small plot of land meant that buildings were so closely packed together that flats were often wall-to-wall with other flats. Alleyways would be built to be as narrow as possible and only 2 elevators served the entire city of 33,000-35,000 residents.1 In some cases, the structural stability of the buildings was found to be prone to collapse, however, considering that the buildings were so closely packed together, even if there were structural defects, the 300 buildings formed a ‘stable collective formwork’ meaning that the city was structurally organised as one single compact building.6
Crime & Anarchy in Kowloon Walled City
More interestingly, Kowloon Walled City was not governed by the British government, the Chinese government nor the Hong Kong government.7 Therefore, save for a few police raids here and there, Kowloon Walled City was basically an anarchy, governed by triad gangs where nothing was considered a crime.8 Although statistically, the reported crime rates in Kowloon Walled City were low, it is unclear whether these reported crime rates accurately reflected the reality of life in Kowloon Walled City.9 Some interviews with residents living in Kowloon Walled City mention that crimes such as corruption, drug trafficking, child labour, prostitution and gambling were integral aspects of life in Kowloon Walled City, with police enforcement often corroborating with gangs.9 However, in other interviews with residents, it appears that the triad groups were not as violent as the media portrays them today and crime was rarely an issue.6
The alleyways of Kowloon Walled City were extremely narrow with leaking pipes. Often, residents would carry umbrellas with them when walking outside.
Photographer: Greg Girard
As Kowloon Walled City was not governed, shop owners and workers also did not require legal licences from labour or health departments to practise.(10) As rent was much cheaper in Kowloon Walled City compared to suburban Hong Kong, some people even willingly moved into Kowloon Walled City, hoping to open their businesses.(10) As such, Kowloon Walled City was home to many small temples, schools, restaurants, grocery stores and manufacturing centres such as rubber factories, fish ball factories and meat processing factories.10 However, the lack of regulations and licences also meant that many unlicensed ‘self-taught’ dentists and doctors would also open health clinics and pharmacies, selling illicit substances.10,11
Many unlicensed dentists and doctors opened practices in Kowloon Walled City due to cheap rent and to evade legal permit and licence requirements.
Photographer: Greg Gerard
Despite the seemingly horrifying circumstances of living in Kowloon Walled City, Kowloon Walled City’s 10,700 households and 8,500 thriving businesses can be viewed as a microcosm of Hong Kong’s multi-layered and nuanced culture.10 And from many interviews with residents, it is clear that a considerable number of residents were actually satisfied and content with living in Kowloon Walled City – with some being reluctant to leave.6,11 People outside of Kowloon Walled City would also often visit in hopes of finding cheaper healthcare services (albeit most of these services were illegal); scouring prostitutes (some even being under 18); and purchasing cheap food or delicacies such as snake meat and dog meat (which was illegal in other parts of Hong Kong).10,11
A typical coffin home in Hong Kong may be even smaller than the average human height.
Photographer: Benny Lam
Romanticising Kowloon Walled City
After many controversial debates, Kowloon Walled City eventually began demolition in 1987 and is now replaced with the more naturalistic and scenic Kowloon Walled City Park, consisting of only a few archeological remnants as a reminder of the existence of Kowloon Walled City.7 Despite its demolition, Kowloon Walled City appears to have had an interesting impact on modern popular culture. Many well-known video games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops, movies such as Batman, anime such as Akira and other dystopian cyberpunk and sci-fi-themed escape rooms and bars have all taken inspiration from Kowloon Walled City.9 However, the romanticisation of Kowloon Walled City fails to take into account the true horrific living conditions of such a densely populated and impenetrable city. On the other hand, considering the contentment of residents living in Kowloon Walled City, the perceptions of Kowloon Walled City as a ‘dystopian’ slum riddled with crime may also be far from the truth.
The Modern Kowloon Walled City
Hong Kong still suffers from a current housing crisis, with apartments costing approximately $30,000-45,000 per m2 of land.12 Compare this to Melbourne where housing costs approximately $10,000-15,000 per m2 of land in the inner-city suburbs.13,14
Recently, there has also been an increased interest towards Hong Kong’s ‘coffin homes’. Approximately 100,000 people in Hong Kong live in houses that are smaller than coffins, with the smallest coffin homes being as small as 170cm tall and 60cm wide.15 In these coffin homes, having adequate privacy; being able to stretch your legs while sleeping; or being able to stand vertically in your home would be considered a luxury. To make it worse, rows of coffin homes are shared with over 30 other residents, the beds are often infested with bed bugs and homes rarely have natural light and ventilation. If lucky, these bunk beds may be separated by a single sliding door for privacy or if you’re unlucky, you may only be able to afford to live in ‘cage homes’ which can only be described as metal-wire animal crates with no privacy.16 Such claustrophobic living standards are quite comparable to living in Kowloon Walled City or could be described as even worse than life in Kowloon Walled City. Like Kowloon Walled City, residents living in coffin homes are often from the most marginalised groups such as migrants, the elderly, the poor and people suffering from substance-related addictions and mental illnesses.15 Therefore, despite the demolition of Kowloon Walled City, it is clear that such horrific living conditions still exist today, both in Hong Kong, as well as globally in many other slums.
Conclusion
What actually occurred behind the walls of Kowloon Walled City remains a mystery. With a lack of government reports and documentation, most research findings rely on word-of-mouth and interviews with residents who lived in Kowloon Walled City – however, most of these are lost in translation and time. Therefore, there is still much to learn about the operations of Kowloon Walled City.
Although life in Kowloon Walled City may be viewed today as just ‘mere history’, considering the current public housing crisis in Hong Kong along with the unsettling living conditions in other global population-dense slums such as Dharavi, it is clear that these ‘historic’ living conditions are still the current living conditions for many residents today.
After demolition, Kowloon Walled City was replaced with Kowloon Walled City Park.
Photographer: Reuters Photographer
References
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